Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic gram-negative pathogen. It represents a major course of hospital-aquired infections, especially in burnt and other immuno-compromised patients, including transplant or cancer patients. Therefore, it is regarded as a "problem microbe" in human medicine.
Many efforts have been made so far in order to develop a vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. For example, in the EP-0 297 291 the complete amino acid-sequence of the outer membrane protein F, as well as the nucleotide sequence coding for OprF is disclosed. In the EP-0 357 024 the complete amino acid sequence of the outer membrane protein I and, additionally, the nucleotide sequence coding for OprI is shown. Furthermore, with both proteins it was shown that they may be useful for conferring immunoprotection against Pseudomonas aeruginosa to an animal or human proband. However, improvement of procedures of vaccination against a lethal Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is still an object.